Frozen Hearts
by PigeonBrain
Summary: Kristoff finds a crazy man. Out of pity, he takes him back to the castle. However, this soon turns out to have consequences. Jelsa.
The official Arendelle ice-master and deliverer pulled the sleigh up.

"Alright buddy. Let's harvest some ice." Kristoff took in the sight of the frozen river with his hands on his hips.

Sven snorted.

Kristoff feigned hurt. "Don't give me that. Harvesting ice is an age-long tradition, you know." He grabbed the ice-saw from the sleigh.

The snow crunched under his feet. It was the first snowfall, that is, the first snowfall Elsa hadn't caused. So even though it had officially been winter for a month now, it was only now Kristoff was heading out. He wanted to do things properly, and if Elsa was the one freezing things for him, it just felt condescending.

He hadn't told Elsa and Anna he was going, he'd just left a note.

Kristoff breathed in the morning snow. The moon was still up, hesitantly hovering above the horizon, but the sun had officially called it day. It was time to get some work done.

Though…

Kristoff stopped, realizing he'd forgotten something.

"You coming, Fred?"

The blanket in the sleigh rustled slightly, and a strawberry blonde head peeked out. Bright eyes blinked, shutting tight when they realized it was too bright.

Kristoff laughed, but waited patiently.

Fred bumbled around a bit, but finally managed to crawl out of the sled. "yeah, mm commn', Dad."

Kristoff smiled. He padded the kid on his head. "You slept in the sled."

"Mmmm." The tiny child yawned. His fine hair was sticking out everywhere.

"We gotta unrein Shovel first," Kristoff said, walking Fred through the steps. "He'll help us drag the ice up. And Sven too of course."

Sven rolled his eyes. The reindeer was too old to help. He couldn't even pull the sled anymore, to be honest, he was just coming along for the company.

The sleigh was pulled by Shovel, Sven's grandchild.

Shovel was a good kid, but not exactly the brightest.

Free of the reigns, Shovel danced around wildly. Seconds later, he'd accidentally rammed his head into a tree trunk. Shovel looked around confusedly. Then, deciding the tree trunk must have attacked him, Shovel rammed his head into the tree again.

Sven sighed.

"Um, alright Shovel, that's enough." Kristoff grabbed the reindeer by the antlers.

Shovel calmed down and followed in his usual, slightly confused, manner.

Through the frozen forest, the two humans and two reindeers travelled down to the river.

Fred was having the time of his life, jumping from hole to hole in the footsteps left from Kristoff. The snow tumbled and flew, and Fred rolled until he was white as a snowman.

"That's enough now, Fred," Kristoff said, pulling his rambunctious child up on his wide shoulders. It was good that Fred was awake now, but the kid would tire himself out if he kept on like that.

By the edge of the river, Kristoff put Fred down.

"The river's frozen over good and well. You can tell by the look of the ice. But," Kristoff held up a finger. "You can never trust it. Always be careful."

Kristoff tied a rope around his waist. The other end of the rope was fastened to Shovel.

As Fred watched with wide blue eyes, Kristoff walked out on the ice. He tested the ice with a few stomps.

"It seems safe, but I'll also check the thickness of the ice with this, uh, thingy thing." Kristoff hefted up a long iron stick.

"Thingy thing," Fred repeated.

"That's not-" Kristoff sighed. "Well, we can call it that."

To be honest, he hadn't always taken these precautions, when he worked in the ice-business. But he wanted to set a good example for Fred.

Kristoff gave the ice a few stabs, but quickly realized he'd forgotten something to hammer with. "Alright, just-" He tried putting his weight on it. Nothing happened. "Alright, uh." He glanced at Fred, who was looking at him with wide-eyed awe.

Kristoff tossed the iron stick away. "It's safe!" he announced.

Fred hopped out on the ice. "Yaaay!"

Kristoff shook his head at the kid. Always so full of energy.

Kristoff cut a hole in the ice, steadily widening it until he could begin harvesting proper blocks from it. Fred tried his best to help. For a few minutes.

Kristoff huffed, dragging up another block. He glanced at Fred, sitting on the edge of the ice, swinging his legs over the water.

"Wanna try making your own hole?" Kristoff asked.

It was probably still too early for him, but if it could keep him engaged…

Kristoff helped Fred make a hole a little off from Kristoff's hole. His cheeks were all red as Fred tried to pull up the little block of ice they'd cut out.

Kristoff waved Sven over. "Keep an eye on him, alright?"

Sven huffed, as though saying "you don't have to tell me."

Kristoff returned to his own hole.

A few minutes later, he heard Fred call for him.

"Dad. Dad. Wha's 'at?"

Kristoff looked over, and felt a little pride swell as he saw the block of ice Fred had dragged up all on his own. However, Fred and Sven were staring at something, in the hole Fred had made.

Kristoff walked over. At first he wasn't sure what he was looking at, it was white and round. When he realized, Kristoff did a double take.

"Go back to the sled, Fred. Now." He ordered. "Sven."

Fred hesitated, but when Sven started pushing him, he followed.

Kristoff crouched by the hole Fred had made.

It was a human face, submerged under water. A fair young boy with snow-white hair, his eyes closed as though he was merely sleeping.

There was no doubt the boy was dead.

Kristoff sighed. The boy must have fallen through the ice sometime during the early winter. The cold had preserved his body.

He'd love to simply leave and forget this fiasco, but he had to retrieve the body. Somebody from the village was probably missing the boy.

It took a few minutes, before he'd widened the hole enough to drag the body up.

Now that he could see all of him, Kristoff realized it wasn't a boy as he'd thought initially. He was lanky, but there was no doubt it was the body of an adult, or someone almost adult.

It was a shame to lose someone so beautiful.

Kristoff motioned to carry the corpse, but grimaced. He didn't really want to touch the corpse any more than necessary. He got an idea. "Shovel."

Shovel, who'd been watching the proceeding, jumped back wide-eyed.

"Oh, come on. You can carry the dead guy. He won't bite. Isn't that right?" Kristoff said, slapping the dead young man's cheeks. "You're not scary."

The white-haired boy opened his eyes.

"Holy shit!" Kristoff screamed, and scrambled back so fast he didn't realize the hole was right behind him.

Kristoff fell into the water.

Two hands reached down through the water and grabbed hold of him. Almost as fast as he'd fallen in, he was dragged out again.

Kristoff gasped for air and coughed. Some water came out.

A hand was placed on his back. "Are you alright?"

"Am _I_ alright?" Kristoff spluttered. "I thought you were dead!"

Two wide blue eyes blinked at him. "Me? I'm not… anymore dead than your everyday regular ghost."

"How did you even get under the ice?" Kristoff ran his hand through his hair, wet and miserable. He was beginning to shake from cold. Kristoff looked at the young boy. "Are you even cold?"

"Well, technically… 'mm always cold," he said with a cheeky smile and a shrug.

Kristoff looked at him weirdly. "Huh. Well, maybe you're like Elsa."

That was apparently not the response he'd expected. "Elsa?"

Kristoff stood up stiffly. The cold was hurting his joints. "You don't know Queen Elsa?" Kristoff asked incredulous. "The snow queen. Ring any bells?"

All he got was a headshake.

"You're kidding me," Kristoff mumbled. Well, whatever. He couldn't stand around talking, he had to get back to the sleigh and get a change of clothes, maybe wrap himself in blankets for a few minutes, and a fire also sounded nice. "Well, I gotta go."

Kristoff started jogging slowly back to the sled, and as he did so he cast a glance back to see if Shovel was following. He was. The young man was too. "I've got blankets and change of clothing, at my sleigh. In case you need any…"

"You've got a sleigh? Hey that's cool, are you like this world's Santa Claus?"

"What?" was all Kristoff managed to say.

"Hm, well what kind of myth are you then? Some sort of abominable snowman? A beast-man?"

Kristoff frowned. "You're actually a really rude young boy, aren't you?" He was regretting this more and more.

The youth just laughed.

They were soon by the sleigh. The youth was behind Kristoff, but when he saw the sleigh and Fred he was ahead so fast, it was like he was flying.

He crouched down in front of the child, with a friendly smile. "Hey there. What's your name, little man?"

"I'm Fred," the boy said, smiling all over his face, happy he was getting attention from an older boy. "Hey you're-" the boy searched for the right words. "Ummm, under the ice."

The beautiful young man gasped, as though he was completely astounded. "You can see me?"

"Yeah," Fred confirmed with a grave nod.

The young man lifted the child up and twirled. "Oh, that's wonderful!"

"Hey. Hands of my kid." Kristoff protested. He still wasn't sure if the man was crazy or just messing with him, but he wasn't taking any chances.

"Your kid?" the white-haired youth cocked an eye-brow. "He doesn't look like an abominable snowman to me."

Kristoff was at a loss for words. "He's not. What's-" Kristoff shook his head. "You know what, I don't care. Get in the sleigh."

Shovel was harnessed, and Kristoff and the strange ice-man got in the sleigh. The stranger was still carrying Fred, playing with him to Fred's delight.

Kristoff relented a little. Even if the stranger was rude, he clearly had a good heart.

Besides, the blankets were helping Kristoff's mood a little bit. Kristoff was pretty resistant to the cold, but he had limits.

As Shovel dragged them back towards Arendelle, Kristoff opened up conversation with the stranger again. "So, you've got a name?"

The youth hesitated, but then smiled. "I'm Jack Frost."


End file.
